United Republic of China
:This country is a part of Altverse. :This is subject to major changes as it is not the final version. The history of the URC as written is not yet canon. ) 中华联国 ( ) United Republic of China ( ) Zhōnghuá Liánguó ( ) |image_flag = 2000px-Flag of the Republic of China.svg.png |alt_flag = |image_flag2 = |alt_flag2 = |image_coat = Taiwan.png |alt_coat = |symbol_type = National arms |national_motto = No official motto. |national_anthem = |royal_anthem = |other_symbol_type = |other_symbol = |image_map = URC Altverse Map.png |alt_map = |map_caption = Location of the United Republic of China (excluding its island territories) |image_map2 = |alt_map2 = |map_caption = |capital = Guangzhou |latd= 23 | latm= 08 | latNS= N |longd= 113 |longm= 16 |longEW= E |largest_city = Guangzhou |official_languages = |membership = Capital District of Guangzhou, Guangdong, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, District of Jianxi, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang, Municipality of Shanghai, Taiwan, Yunnan, Tibet |membership_type = Districts (Qu) (區) |demonym = Lan Chinese |regional_languages = • • • • |ethnic_groups = 87.871% Han 3.423% Zhuang 3.038% Miao 1.870% Hui 1.584% Tibetan 0.863% Yi 0.566% Vietnamese 0.785% Others |ethnic_groups_year = 2010 |government_type = |leader_title1 = President |leader_name1 = |leader_title2 = Premier |leader_name2 = |legislature = United Republic Congress (unicameral) |upper_house = |lower_house = |sovereignty_type = Establishment |sovereignty_note = from |established_event1 = |established_date1 = 1911 |established_event2 = |established_date2 = 1 January 1912 |established_event3 = Reunification Day |established_date3 = 12 August 1929 |established_event4 = 1950 Armistice |established_date4 = 27 July, 1950 |area = |area_km2 = 3,559,135 km² |area_sq_mi = 1,374,189 mi² |area_footnote = |percent_water = 3.02% |area_label = Total |area_label2 = |area_data2 = |population_estimate = 445,000,000 |population_estimate_rank = |population_estimate_year = 2010 |population_census = 443,326,345 |population_census_year = 2010 |population_density_km2 = 182 |population_density_sq_mi = 471 |population_density_rank = |GDP_PPP = $6,456,024,890,510 |GDP_PPP_rank = |GDP_PPP_year = 2014 |GDP_PPP_per_capita = $14,562 |GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = |GDP_nominal = $3,767,062,396,390 |GDP_nominal_rank = |GDP_nominal_year = 2014 |GDP_nominal_per_capita = $8,497 |GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = |Gini = 34.2 |Gini_ref = |Gini_rank = |Gini_year = 2014 |HDI = 0.735 |HDI_ref = |HDI_rank = |HDI_year = 2010 |currency = Yuan (¥) |currency_code = URY |time_zone = GZT, KMT and XZT |utc_offset = +6 to +8 |time_zone_DST = |utc_offset_DST = |DST_note = DST not used. |date_format = dd-mm-yyyy |drives_on = Right |cctld = .ur |iso3166code = UR |official_website = www.urchina.gov.ur |calling_code = +86 |vehicle_reg = |aircraft_code = |patron_saint = |footnote_a = |footnote_b = |footnote_h = |footnotes = }}The United Republic of China (URC), commonly referred to as the URC, is a composed of 11 (provincial) districts, 1 municipality, 1 capital district, and various possessions. Nine contiguous districts, Guangzhou, and Shanghai are located South of the People’s Republic of China, East of , Northeast of , and North of , , , , and North Vietnam. The island district of Hainan is located South of the mainland, off the coast the southwestern tip of the district of Guangdong, while the island district of Taiwan is located off the coast of the district of Fujian. The United Republic of China also claims control over numerous island territories concentrated in the . Covering approximately 3.6 million square kilometers, the URC is the world’s eighth-largest country by land area. The URC’s landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from arid tundra in Tibet to subtropical forests in Yunnan. The separate China from . The , the third-longest in the world, runs from the to the densely populated eastern seaboard, and divides the United Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China until the between Tibet and Sichuan. China as a whole is a cradle of civilization, with its known history beginning with an ancient civilization – one of the world’s earliest – that flourished in the fertile basin of the in the that is now part of the People’s Republic of China. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties. Since 221 BCE, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and reformed numerous times. The Republic of China replaced the last dynasty in 1912, and ruled the Chinese mainland under a multiparty, federal democratic republic system of government, and brought in mass cultural changes. After the Republic of China reunited China in 1929, the country’s name was changed to the United Republic of China. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Communist Party rose in power among war refugees fleeing into the Northwest. After the war and during the period of reclamation over China, the Communist Party began a devastating civil war against the United Republic of China, until an Armistice was made under the observance of the League of Nations. The People’s Republic of China, a communist single-party sovereign state, ruled from Beijing (also known as Peking) in the North, while the United Republic of China assumed control of land south of the Yangtze River and the entire Tibetan Plateau and ruled from Guangzhou (also known as Canton). Since the end of the Vietnam War signalling the reinstitution of friendly relations between the URC and the US and its allies, the country has become one of the fastest growing major economies; it is the world’s fifth largest economy by GDP (nominal) and fourth-largest by GDP (PPP) as of 2014. The URC is also the world’s second-largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods, after and before the People’s Republic of China, respectively. Unlike its Northern rival, the URC is not a nuclear weapons state due to the country’s pursuit of non-alignment during the height of the Cold War. However, the country does possess the fourth largest military force in the world, including the second-largest Air Force, the third-largest submarine force, and the second-largest military budget as of 2016. The United Republic of China is a founding member of the League of Nations founded in 1920; at the same time, the URC is a member of the World Trade Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BCIM, and G-20. The URC is a great power and rivals the People’s Republic of China as a major regional power in Asia. Etymology The word “China” is thought to have been originally derived from the Sanskrit word Cīna (चीन), which is translated into the Persian word Chīn (چین). Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE). The word "China" itself was first recorded in 1516 in the journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The journal was translated and published in England in 1555. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini and supported by many later scholars, is that the word China and its earlier related forms are ultimately derived from the state of “Qin” (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou dynasty which unified China to form the Qin dynasty. Other suggestions for the derivation of “China" however exist. The official name of the modern country is the United Republic of China ( : 中華聯國; : Zhōnghuá Liánguó). The common Chinese name for the country is Lián Zhōngguó (Chinese: 聯中國, from lián, as in “federal” or “federation”, zhōng, as in “central” or “middle”, and guó, as in “state” or “nation”). The term lián distinguishes the United Republic of China from the People’s Republic of China (Chinese: 中華人民共和國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó), which is often referred to as Rénmín Zhōngguó, literally meaning “People’s China” which consists of the communist political denotation of the term “people”. The term Zhōngguó appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BCE, and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia tribes from perceived "barbarians". The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states or provinces in the central plain, but was not used as a name for the country as a whole until the nineteenth century. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as “central”, with other civilizations having the same view of themselves. History Prehistory Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago. Fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125,000–80,000 BCE have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County, Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC and Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BC. Some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbol (7th millennium BC) was the earliest Chinese writing system. Early dynastic rule According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE. The dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia Dynasty or of another culture from the same period. The succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE. Their oracle bone script (from c. 1500 BCE) represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found, and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters. The Shang were conquered by the Zhou, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged from the weakened Zhou state and continually waged war with each other in the 300-year Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, there were seven powerful sovereign states in what is now China, each with its own king, ministry and army. Imperial Period The Warring States period ended in 221 BCE after the state of Qin conquered the other six kingdoms and established the first unified Chinese state. Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of Qin, proclaimed himself "First Emperor" (始皇帝) and imposed reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of Chinese characters, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. The Qin Dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion. The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that has endured to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching southern Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. Han China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world. The Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism, a philosophy developed in the Spring and Autumn period, as its official state ideology. Despite the Han's official abandonment of Legalism, the official ideology of the Qin, Legalist institutions and policies remained and formed the basis of the Han government. After the collapse of Han, a period of disunion known as the period of the Three Kingdoms followed. The brief unification of the Jin dynasty was broken by the uprising of the Five Barbarians. In 581 CE, China was reunited under the Sui. However, the Sui Dynasty declined following its defeat in the Goguryeo–Sui War (598–614). Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese economy, technology and culture entered a golden age. After the campaigns against the Turks, China returned control of the Western Regions and reopened the Silk Road during the flourishing age of Tang dynasty, which was devastated and weakened by the An Shi Rebellion in the 8th century. The Song dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size to around 100 million people, mostly because of the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song dynasty also saw a revival of Confucianism, in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang, and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as landscape art and porcelain were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity. However, the military weakness of the Song army was observed by the Jurchen Jin dynasty. In 1127, Emperor Huizong of Song and the capital Bianjing were captured during the Jin–Song Wars, remnants of the Song retreated to southern China. In the 13th century, China was gradually conquered by the Mongol empire. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty; the Yuan conquered the last remnant of the Song dynasty in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, the population of Song China was 120 million citizens; this was reduced to 60 million by the time of the census in 1300. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty. Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led explorations throughout the world, reaching as far as Africa. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. With the budding of capitalism, philosophers such as Wang Yangming further critiqued and expanded Neo-Confucianism with concepts of individualism and equality of four occupations. The scholar-official stratum became a supporting force of industry and commerce in the tax boycott movements, which, together with the famines and the wars against Japanese invasions of Korea and Manchu invasions led to an exhausted treasury. In 1644, Beijing was captured by a coalition of peasant rebel forces led by Li Zicheng. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing Dynasty then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and overthrew Li’s short-lived Shun Dynasty, and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing Dynasty. End of dynastic rule The Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. As a conquest dynasty, it strengthened the feudal autocracy to crackdown anti-Qing sentiment. The Haijin ("sea ban") and the ideological control as represented by the literary inquisition caused technological stagnation. In the 19th century, the dynasty experienced Western imperialism following the First Opium War (1839–42) and the Second Opium War (1856–60) with Britain and France. China was forced to sign unequal treaties, pay compensation, open treaty ports, allow extraterritoriality for foreign nationals, and cede Hong Kong to the British under the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) resulted in Qing China's loss of influence in the Korean Peninsula, as well as the cession of Taiwan to Japan. The Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in which millions of people died. In the 1850s and 1860s, the failed Taiping Rebellion ravaged southern China. Other major rebellions included the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1855–67), the Nian Rebellion (1851–68), the Miao Rebellion (1854–73), the Panthay Rebellion (1856–73) and the Dungan Revolt (1862–77). The initial success of the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s was frustrated by the series of military defeats in the 1880s and 1890s. In the 19th century, the great Chinese Diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79, in which between 9 and 13 million people died. In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor drafted a reform plan to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The ill-fated anti-Western Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901 further weakened the dynasty. Founding of the Republic The last days of the Qing dynasty in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by civil unrest and foreign invasions. Various internal rebellions caused millions of deaths, and conflicts with foreign Western European powers almost always resulted in humiliating unequal treaties that exacted costly reparations and compromised the country's territorial integrity. In addition, there were sentiments that political power should return to the majority Han Chinese from the minority Manchus from the northeastern province of Manchuria. Responding to these civil failures and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court attempted to reform the Imperial Government in various ways, such as the decision to draft a constitution in 1906, the establishment of provincial legislatures in 1909, and the preparations for electing a national parliament in 1910. However, many of these measures were opposed by the conservatives of the Qing Court, and many reformers were either imprisoned or executed outright. The failures of the Imperial Court to enact such political liberalization and modernization caused the reformists to take the road of revolution. There were many revolutionary groups, but the most organized one was founded by Sun Yat-sen (Chinese: 孫逸仙), a republican and anti-Qing activist who became increasingly popular among overseas Chinese and Chinese students abroad, especially in Japan. In 1905 Sun founded the Tongmenghui in Tokyo with Huang Xing, a popular leader of the Chinese revolutionary movement in Japan, as his deputy. Over time, the Tongmenghui recieved other great members such as Li Zongren, Zhang Binglin, Chen Tianhua, Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin, Chen Jiongming, Tao Chengzhang, Cai Yuanpei, Li Shizeng, Zhang Renjie, and Qiu Jin. This movement, generously supported by overseas Chinese funds, also gained political support with regional military officers and some of the reformers who had fled China after the Hundred Days' Reform. Sun's political philosophy was conceptualized in 1897, first enunciated in Tokyo in 1905 and modified through the early 1920s. It centered on the Three Principles of the People: "nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood". The principle of nationalism called for overthrowing the Manchus and ending foreign hegemony over China. The second principle, democracy, was used to describe Sun's goal of a popularly elected republican form of government. People's livelihood, often referred to as socialism, was aimed at helping the common people through regulation of the ownership of the means of production and land. The Republican Era of China began with the outbreak of revolution on October 10, 1911, in Wuchang, the capital of Hubei Province, among discontented modernized army units whose anti-Qing plot had been uncovered. This would be known as the Wuchang Uprising, which is celebrated as Double Tenth Day and the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution. It had been preceded by numerous abortive uprisings and organized protests inside China. The revolt quickly spread to neighboring cities, and Tongmenghui members throughout the country rose in support of the Wuchang revolutionary forces. On October 12 the Revolutionaries succeeded in capturing Hankou and Hanyang. However, the euphoria engendered by this victory was short-lived. On October 27, Yuan Shikai was reappointed by the Qing Court to lead the New Army, and loyalist forces under Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui moved south to retake Wuhan. After heavy fighting in November, the out-manned and out-gunned Revolutionary Army was driven out of Hankou and Hanyang, and retreated to Wuchang south of the Yangtze. During the 41-day Battle of Yangxia, however, 15 of the 24 provinces had declared their independence from the Qing empire. Yuan Shikai halted his army's advance on Wuchang and began to negotiate with the revolutionaries. A month later, Sun Yat-sen returned to China from the United States, where he had been raising funds among Chinese and American sympathizers. On January 1, 1912, delegates from the independent provinces elected Sun Yat-sen as the first Provisional President of the Republic of China. Yuan Shikai agreed to accept the Republic and forced the last emperor of China, Puyi, to abdicate on February 12. Empress Dowager Longyu signed the abdication papers. Puyi was allowed to continue living in the Forbidden City, however. The Republic of China officially succeeded the Qing Dynasty. Some advocated that a Han be installed as Emperor, either the descendant of Confucius, who was the Duke Yansheng, or the Ming dynasty Imperial family descendant, the Marquis of Extended Grace. Early Republic (1912-16) On January 1, 1912, Sun officially declared the establishment of the Republic of China and was inaugurated in Nanjing as the first Provisional President. However, power in Beijing already had passed to Yuan Shikai, who had effective control of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, Sun agreed to Yuan's demand for China to be united under a Beijing government headed by him. On March 10, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China. The republic which Sun Yat-sen and his associates envisaged evolved slowly. Although there were many political parties vying for supremacy in the legislature, the revolutionists lacked an army, and soon Yuan Shikai's power began to outstrip that of parliament. Yuan revised the constitution on his own and became dictatorial. In August 1912 the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) was founded by Song Jiaoren, one of Sun's associates. It was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Tongmenghui. In the national elections held in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned against the Yuan administration, whose representation at the time was largely by the Republican Party, led by Liang Qichao. Song was an able campaigner and the Kuomintang won a majority of seats. Second Revolution Song was assassinated in March. Some people believe that Yuan Shikai was responsible, and although it has never been proven, he had already arranged the assassination of several pro-revolutionist generals. Animosity towards Yuan grew. In April he secured a Reorganization Loan of 25 million pounds sterling from Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Japan, without consulting the parliament first. The loan was used to finance Yuan's Beiyang Army. On May 20 Yuan concluded a deal with Russia that granted Russia special privileges in Outer Mongolia and restricted Chinese right to station troops there. Kuomintang members of the Parliament accused Yuan of abusing his rights and called for his removal. On the other hand, the Progressive Party (Chinese: 進步黨; pinyin: Jìnbùdǎng), which was composed of constitutional monarchists and supported Yuan, accused the Kuomintang of fomenting an insurrection. Yuan then decided to use military action against the Kuomintang. In July 1913 seven southern provinces rebelled against Yuan, beginning the Second Revolution (Chinese: 二次革命; pinyin: Èrcì Gémìng). There were several underlying reasons for the Second Revolution besides Yuan's abuse of power. First was that most Revolutionary Armies from different provinces were disbanded after the establishment of the Republic of China, and many officers and soldiers felt that they were not compensated for toppling the Qing Dynasty. These factors gave rise to much discontent against the new government among the military. Secondly, many revolutionaries felt that Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong were undeserving of the posts of presidency and vice presidency, because they acquired the posts through political maneuvering rather than participation in the revolutionary movement. Lastly, Yuan's use of violence (such as Song's assassination) dashed the Kuomintang's hope of achieving reforms and political goals through electoral means. However, the Second Revolution did not fare well for the Kuomintang. The leading Kuomintang military force of Jiangxi was defeated by Yuan’s forces on August 1 and Nanchang was taken. On September 1, Nanjing was taken by Yuan. When the rebellion was suppressed, Sun and other instigators fled to Japan. In October 1913 an intimidated parliament formally elected Yuan Shikai President of the Republic of China, and the major powers extended recognition to his government. Duan Qirui and other trusted Beiyang generals were given prominent positions in the cabinet. To achieve international recognition, Yuan Shikai had to agree to autonomy for Outer Mongolia and Tibet. China was still to be suzerain, but it would have to allow Russia a free hand in Outer Mongolia and Tanna Tuva and Britain continuation of its influence in Tibet. Mass banditry, Yuan Shikai, and the National Protection War Bandit leaders with popular movements instigated revolts, with the support of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionaries from Guangzhou, then known as Canton. The bandit-led Bai Lang Rebellion ransacked and destroyed much of central China before it was crushed by the Beiyang Army of Yuan Shikai, the Muslim Ma clique and Tibetan militia. These bandits were associated with the Gelaohui. In November Yuan Shikai, legally president, ordered the Kuomintang dissolved and forcefully removed its members from parliament. Because the majority of the parliament members belonged to the Kuomintang, the parliament did not meet quorum and was subsequently unable to convene. In January 1914 Yuan formally suspended the parliament. In February he called into session a meeting to revise the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, which was announced in May of that year. The revision greatly expanded Yuan's powers, allowing him to declare war, sign treaties and appoint officials without seeking approval from the legislature first. In December 1914 he further revised the law and lengthened the term of the President to ten years, with no term limit. Essentially, Yuan was preparing for his ascendancy as the emperor. On the other hand, since the failure of the Second Revolution, Sun Yat-sen and his allies were trying to rebuild the revolutionary movement. In July 1914 Sun established the Chinese Revolutionary Party (Chinese: 中華革命黨; pinyin: Zhōnghúa Gémìngdǎng). He felt that his failures at building a consistent revolutionary movement stemmed from the lack of cohesiveness among its members. To that end, Sun required that party members to be totally loyal to Sun and follow a series of rather harsh rules. Some of his earlier associates including Huang Xing, Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin, and Chen Jiongming, balked at the idea of such authoritarian organization and refused to join Sun. However, they agreed that the republic must not revert to imperial rule. Besides the revolutionary groups associated with Sun, there were also several other groups aimed at toppling Yuan Shikai. One was the Progressive Party, the original constitutional-monarchist party that opposed the Kuomintang during the Second Revolution. The Progressive Party switched their position largely because of Yuan's sabotage of the national parliament. Secondly, many provincial governors who had declared their independence from the Qing Imperial Court in 1912 found the idea of supporting another Imperial Court utterly ridiculous. Yuan also alienated his Beiyang generals by centralizing tax collection from local authorities. In addition, public opinion was overwhelmingly anti-Yuan. When World War I broke out in 1914, Japan fought on the Allied side and seized German holdings in Shandong Province. In 1915 the Japanese set before the government in Beijing the so-called Twenty-One Demands, aimed at securing Japanese economic controls in railway and mining operations in Shandong, Manchuria and Fujian. The Japanese also pressed to have Yuan Shikai appoint Japanese advisors to key positions in the Chinese government. The Twenty-One Demands would have made China effectively a Japanese protectorate. The Beijing government rejected some of these demands but yielded to the Japanese insistence on keeping the Shandong territory already in its possession. Beijing also recognized Tokyo's authority over southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. Yuan's acceptance of the demands was extremely unpopular, but he continued his monarchist agenda nevertheless. On 12 December 1915 Yuan, supported by his son Yuan Keding, declared himself emperor of a new Empire of China. This sent shock waves throughout China, causing widespread rebellion in numerous provinces. On 25 December former Yunnan governor Cai E, former Jiangxi governor Li Liejun (Chinese: 李烈鈞; pinyin: Lǐ Lièjūn) and Yunnan Gen. Tang Jiyao formed the National Protection Army (Chinese: 護國軍; pinyin: Hùgúojūn) and declared Yunnan independent. Thus began the National Protection War (Chinese: 護國戰爭; pinyin: Hùgúo Zhànzhēng). Yunnan's declaration of independence also encouraged other southern provinces to declare theirs. Yuan's Beiyang generals, who were already wary of his imperial coronation, did not put up an aggressive campaign against the National Protection Army. On 22 March 1916 Yuan formally repudiated monarchy and stepped down as the first and last emperor of his dynasty. He died on 6 June of that year. Vice President Li Yuanhong assumed the presidency and appointed Beiyang Gen. Duan Qirui as his Premier. Yuan Shikai’s imperial ambitions finally ended with the return of republican government. Warlord Era After Yuan Shikai's death, shifting alliances of regional warlords fought for control of the Beijing government. Despite the fact that various warlords gained control of the government in Beijing during the warlord era, this did not constitute a new era of control or governance, because other warlords did not acknowledge the transitory governments in this period and were a law unto themselves. These military-dominated governments were collectively known as the Beiyang Government. The warlord era is considered by some historians to have ended in 1927. World War I and brief Manchu restoration After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong became the President and Duan Qirui became the Premier. The Provisional Constitution was reinstated and the parliament convened. However, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui had many conflicts, the most glaring of which was over China's entry into World War I. Since the outbreak of the war, China had remained neutral until the United States urged all neutral countries to join the Allies, as a condemnation of Germany's use of unrestricted submarine warfare. Premier Duan Qirui was particularly interested in joining the Allies as an opportunity to secure loans from Japan to build up his Anhui clique army. The two factions in the parliament engaged in ugly debates regarding the entry of China and, in May 1917, Li Yuanhong dismissed Duan Qirui from his government. This led provincial military governors loyal to Duan to declare independence and to call for Li Yuanhong to step down as President. Li Yuanhong summoned Zhang Xun to mediate the situation. Zhang Xun had been a general serving the Qing Court and was by this time the military governor of Anhui province. He had his mind on restoring Puyi (Xuantong Emperor) to the imperial throne. Zhang was supplied with funds and weapons through the German legation, which was eager to keep China neutral. On July 1, 1917, Zhang officially proclaimed the restoration of Qing dynasty and requested that Li Yuanhong give up his presidency, which Li promptly rejected. Duan Qirui led his army and defeated Zhang Xun's restoration forces in Beijing. One of Duan's airplanes bombed the Forbidden City, in what was possibly the first aerial bombardment in East Asia. On July 12 Zhang's forces disintegrated and Duan returned to Beijing. The Manchu restoration ended almost as soon as it began. During this period of confusion, Vice President Feng Guozhang, also a Beiyang general, assumed the post of Acting President of the republic and took his oath of office in Nanjing. Duan Qirui resumed his post as the Premier. The Zhili clique of Feng Guozhang and the Anhui clique of Duan Qirui emerged as the most powerful cliques following the restoration affair. Duan Qirui's triumphant return to Beijing essentially made him the most powerful leader in China. Duan dissolved the parliament upon his return and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on August 13, 1917. German and Austro-Hungarian nationals were detained and their assets seized. Around 175,000 Chinese workers volunteered for labor battalions after being enticed with money, some even years before war was declared. They were sent to the Western Front, German East Africa and Mesopotamia and served on supply ships. Some 10,000 died, including over 500 on ships sunk by U-boats. No soldiers were sent overseas, though they did participate with the Allies in the Siberian Intervention under Japanese General Kikuzo Otani. Constitutional Protection War In September Duan's complete disregard for the constitution caused Sun Yat-sen, Cen Chunxuan and the deposed parliament members to establish a new government in Guangzhou and the Constitutional Protection Army (Chinese: 護法軍; pinyin: Hùfǎjūn) to counter Duan's abuse of power. Ironically, Sun Yat-sen's new government was not based on the Provisional Constitution; rather, it was a military government and Sun was its "Grand Commander of the Armed Forces" (Chinese: 大元帥; pinyin: Dàyúanshuài, translated in the Western press as "Generalissimo"). Six southern provinces became part of Sun's Guangzhou military government and repelled Duan's attempt to destroy the Constitutional Protection Army. The Constitutional Protection War continued through 1918. Many in Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou government felt his position as the Generalissimo was too exclusionary and promoted a cabinet system to challenge Sun's ultimate authority. As a result, the Guangzhou government was reorganized to elect a seven-member cabinet system, known as the Governing Committee. Sun was once again sidelined by his political opponents and military strongmen. He left for Shanghai following the reorganization. Duan Qirui's Beijing government did not fare much better than Sun's. Some generals in Duan's Anhui Clique and others in the Zhili clique did not want to use force to unify the southern provinces. They felt negotiation was the solution to unify China and forced Duan to resign in October. In addition, many were distressed by Duan's borrowing of huge sums of Japanese money to fund his army to fight internal enemies. President Feng Guozhang, with his term expiring, was then succeeded by Xu Shichang, who wanted to negotiate with the southern provinces. In February 1919 delegates from the northern and southern provinces convened in Shanghai to discuss postwar situations. However, the meeting broke down over Duan's taking out Japanese loans to fund the Anhui Clique army, and further attempts at negotiation were hampered by the May Fourth Movement. The Constitutional Protection War essentially left China divided along the north-south border. May Fourth Movement In 1917 China declared war on Germany in the hope of recovering its lost province, then under Japanese control. On May 4, 1919, there were massive student demonstrations against the Beijing government and Japan. The political fervor, student activism and iconoclastic and reformist intellectual currents set in motion by the patriotic student protest developed into a national awakening known as the May Fourth Movement. The intellectual milieu in which the May Fourth Movement developed was known as the New Culture Movement and occupied the period 1917–1923. The student demonstrations of May 4, 1919, were the high point of the New Culture Movement, and the terms are often used synonymously. Chinese representatives refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles due to intense pressure from both the student protesters and public opinion. Fight against warlordism and the First United Front The May Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause of republican revolution. In 1917, Sun Yat-sen’s collaboration with Guangdong warlord governor Chen Jiongming, a former member of the Tongmenghui, allowed him to defeat warlord Lu Rongtin of the Guangxi warlord clique in the Guangdong-Guangxi War. Chen drove Lu’s forces out of Guangdong, allowing Sun to re-establish the Republic of China under a new military government under his leadership in Guangzhou, rivalling the Beiyang warlord cliques. In October 1919, Sun re-established the Kuomintang (KMT) to counter the government in Beijing. The latter, under a succession of loyal warlords, still maintained its facade of legitimacy and its relations with the West. By 1921 Sun had become president of the southern government and ceded military command over Guangdong provincial forces to Chen Jiongming. He spent his remaining years trying to consolidate his regime and achieve unity with the north. Due his authoritarian political image and crude demands, northern warlords refused to negotiate their allegiance to Sun’s Republic of China. Furthermore, his efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were fruitless, and in 1920 he turned to the Soviet Union, which had recently achieved its own revolution. The Soviets sought to befriend the Chinese revolutionists by offering scathing attacks on Western imperialism. For political expediency, though, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While Sun endorsed friendship with the Soviets, the KMT’s right-wing opposed such an alliance because of the Soviet dual policy. As the KMT’s gap began to widen, KMT military branch leader Chen Jiongming (inspired by the federalist ideology of Huang Xing who had died in Shanghai while in exile) proposed splitting the KMT for a more efficient multiparty system and appealing to northern warlords with a federal system of republic government, which Chen believed was the more pragmatic structure of government at the time. Much to Chen’s dismay, Sun disagreed with Chen’s proposal, citing that the warlords were nonnegotiable. In 1923 a joint statement by Sun and a Soviet representative in Shanghai officially pledged Soviet assistance for China’s national unification. Soviet advisers—the most prominent of whom was an agent of the Comintern, Mikhail Borodin—began to arrive in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the Kuomintang along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and establish the First United Front. The Communist Party of China led by Chen Duxiu was under Comintern instructions to cooperate with the Kuomintang, and its members were encouraged to join while maintaining their party identities to form a “bloc within.” The CCP was still small at the time, having a membership of just 300 in 1921 and only 1,500 by 1925. By contrast, the Kuomintang in 1922 already had 150,000 members. Soviet advisers also helped the Kuomintang set up a political institute to train propagandists in mass mobilization techniques. In 1923, Sun and his military advisors collaborated with Soviet military advisors and developed a plan to unify China by defeating warlords and forcing them into submission; eventually this plan would be known as the Northern Expedition. Knowing that General Chen Jiongming disagreed with waging war against the warlord cliques, Sun selected former Tongmenghui lieutenant/war-hero Chiang Kai-shek to command the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), the fighting force that was destined to defeat the warlords and unify China under the Republic of China government. With Soviet assistance, the NRA developed into a highly trained fighting force of 250,000 troops armed with contemporary Russian and German-made equipment by 1925. Concurrently, Sun Yat-sen contracted liver cancer and died in a hospital in Beijing on 12 March 1925. Without Sun as a head and mediator of order within the Kuomintang, the party’s order collapsed between the KMT right and left wing. Because the right wing was unable to decide on a candidate for chairperson of the KMT, Reorganizationist (left-wing) leader Wang Jingwei officially succeeded Sun Yat-sen and initiated the commencement of the Northern Expedition. Despite infuriating disapproval from the right wing, Wang and the left-wing Reorganizationists moved the capital of the Republic of China to Wuhan where left-wing ideology was more popular. Chen Jiongming takes power in the South In the winter of 1925, the bickering and defeated members of the KMT’s right wing were unable to decide on how to take control of their situation, especially since Sun was gone and they had no one to rally behind. On the other hand, Chen Jiongming found the absence of Sun and the Reorganizationists from Guangdong province to be good fate. Utilizing the great executive power he now had as the most powerful man in southern China, Chen decided to turn Guangdong province into the first model federal state. Inspired by Huang Xing’s solutions to “cure the sick man of Asia,” Chen planned on starting his own government regime and transform China into a multiparty federal republic, which Huang Xing had believed was the best and longest-lasting way preserve a united and democratic China that had been long separated by a vast array of socio-political factors. Chen was confident in his ability to succeed; he was a popular figure in Guangdong province and had full control over the Guangdong military and the military arsenal in Guangzhou. Chen grabbed the full attention of the right-wing when the Guangdong military force under his command occupied Guangxi province to reestablish the order that had not been present for months. When confronted by right-wing KMT officials, Chen convinced them that the Northern Expedition had been ineffective; months earlier the National Revolutionary Army had defeated newly arisen bandit rulers and minor warlords in Guangxi, and left the province without delay and without a governing body such that Guangxi continued to remain in anarchy. Chen persuaded the right-wing politicians to rally behind his regime and embrace the many virtues of the multiparty federalist system. Leader of the KMT right-wing Hu Hanmin became Chen’s chief of staff and rallied other supporting individuals under his cause. In 1926 Chen continued to mask his regime as a subject of the Wuhan administration. Foreign support for the Northern Expedition came in the form of supplies purchased by the Wuhan administration yet cheaply shipped from overseas to the closer Guangzhou ports, where it was expected that they reach Wuhan. Chen ordered that a sizable portion of these supplies be distributed among the ranks of the military and to needy civilians. Chen earned the support of Chinese civilians by decreasing the overall crime rate and unemployment rate in areas under the jurisdiction of his regime; this was achieved by greatly relaxing regulations over the opium trade and commencing state-permitted opium farming within the country for the first time. In December 1926, Chen’s forces conquered the rather secluded Fujian province and constructed a garrison and government building in Fuzhou. In February 1927, Wang learned of Chen’s regime after word about Chen’s commission of a railroad into Fujian province reached Wuhan. Wang knew that the commission of the Fujian railroad was unsanctioned and sent Sun Fo, Sun Yat-sen’s son, to Fuzhou to speak to Chen. Subsequently, Wang recieved a telegram from the NRA in Nanjing and learned that supply shipments from southern ports had not arrived in neither Nanjing nor Wuhan. Wang accused Chen for treason against the Republic of China, and ordered his capture; word of the accusation quickly reached Guangzhou. By that time, Chen had decieved and detained Sun Fo and was traveling back to Guangzhou. Upon reaching Guangzhou in 21 February 1927, Chen recieved word that he had become a criminal to the Republic of China in Wuhan. Chen sent a telegram to Wuhan, officially declaring himself President of the Republic of China and Guangzhou as the rightful capital, and also declaring war on both the Wuhan administration and the Communist Party of China, officially beginning the Chinese Civil War. Chinese Civil War begins When Wang recieved the news, he ordered the recalling of NRA forces back to Wuhan. When a telegram was sent back in Nanjing, Wang discovered that he was now in a war predicament. With intense fighting with the Zhili warlord led by legendary strategist Wu Peifu at the Yellow River, Chiang could only offer the 17th and 18th Field Divisions, which included 87,000 NRA regulars under Commander He Yingqin, to aid in the defense of Wuhan; Chiang also lacked available artillery and Soviet shipments would not arrive until months later. Meanwhile, the Communist’s newly-formed Red Army in Wuhan only numbered 15,000 and were terribly inexperienced. Wang also lacked control over the Red Army, which only took orders from the Comintern. On the other hand, Chen had around 240,000 regulars in his army, most of them having been former warlord clique soldiers. Chen had full control over the Guangdong weapons arsenal and the many foreign munition shipments that he had amassed over two years of control over the southern ports. This allowed him to fully equip all of his soldiers with the latest in common weaponry and ammunition of European designs. During his rule in the south, Chen had freed many captive warlords in exchange for their allegiance, providing him with a plethora of military leaders. Chen also had access to southern China’s abundance of railways, allowing his army to mobilize quicker than Wang’s. In May 1927, the first major battle of the war broke out in Ganzhou in Southern Jiangxi between Chen’s Guangdong First Army and the Wuhan Red Army. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Chinese Comintern ordered the Red Army to retreat to the Jinggang Mountains, where they stalled up in two different mountains, hoping for He Yingqin’s forces to enter the mountains and reinforce them. A fortnight later, the Guangdong First Army attempted to climb one of the mountains, however were unable to advance due to heavy fire from the Red Army’s cannons that came from both mountains. In the month of June, both armies exchanged mortar shells for three weeks with two failed attempts to advance up the mountains. When news arrived that He Yingqin was heading toward the mountains to support the communists, the Guangdong First Army decided to encircle the inner mountains and trap He’s forces along with the Red Army, and then recieve reinforcement from the Guangdong Third Army in Fujian. He Yingqin’s forces arrived on 20 June but his intel had been a month outdated and thus his entrance was a blind one. However, against Chen’s assumptions, Commander He was able to improvise and create an escape route allowing the Red Army to escape the Guangdong First Army’s encirclement campaign. However due to the Comintern’s earlier instruction to retreat, the Red Army did not enforce He’s army, forcing He to retreat with high casualties. This lack of military cooperation caused Wang to lose control over Jiangxi province, and made Changsha the last line of defense against Chen. The retreating forces took up refuge in Changsha, where Wang and Communist leader Mao Zedong disputed over the direction of their war effort. While the argument mainly involved whether He Yingqin should replace Zhou Enlai as director of the Wuhan administration’s war effort, Mao Zedong and Wang also argued about the direction of the war. Mao wanted Wang to move the government up northwest (to Xi’an) where it would not only be safer but also provide time for Wang to regroup his forces, but Wang disagreed, citing his refusal to give up all of southern China to Chen. Subsequently, the Battle of Changsha occurred in September 1927, and the campaign to take the city was a decisive victory for Chen. Dozens of NRA battalions surrendered and defected to Chen’s side, as it had become increasingly clear that Chen would replace Wang as the ruler of the Republic of China. Only the Red Army and several NRA soldiers that escaped Changsha stood against Chen at Wuhan. Desperate, Wang decided to pull all of his forces back to Wuhan, but his decision was rejected by military advisors including Chiang Kai-shek himself, who wanted to focus on the threat of the Zhili warlords. Chen Jiongming’s federal republic rises to power Fearing that Chiang would reinforce Wuhan, in October, Chen sent Hu Hanmin to Tianjin to meet Zhili warlord clique leader Cao Kun and convince him to join his federal republic. Cao decided to develop a formal alliance first before settling a possible merge of the two regimes. With the alliance declared, the Comintern called for the Red Army’s retreat to Sichuan province; the Red Army was joined by other communists including Zhou Enlai. Losing full control of the situation, Wang unofficially surrendered Wuhan in November 1927 and left the city in an attempt to head for Nanjing where Chiang had set up his base of operations. However when Chiang pledged his allegiance to Chen’s federal republic, Wang became a captive and was put on trial in Nanjing where he was convicted and put on house arrest in Guangzhou. Eventually, Wang would die of opioid overdose in 1930; whether it was an intentional or unintentional suicide would be unknown. In December 1927, the Cao Kun and Chen integrated the Zhili government into Chen’s Republic of China. Cao Kun subsequently retired from a military career and became the governor of Tianjin, and legendary military strategist Wu Peifu became one of Chen’s top generals. In January 1928, Chen moved the capital of the Republic of China to Nanjing under Chiang Kai-shek’s recommendations. There, he organized a military meeting in order to discuss his unification plan. Chiang was to lead a renewed National Revolutionary Army to fight the Communists residing in Sichuan province, where Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai had taken power and established the Chinese Soviet Republic with Chongqing as the capital. Wu Peifu was assigned to direct the conquest of Manchuria from the Japanese-supported Fengtian clique, which was a former enemy of the Zhili clique and refused to join the Republic of China. Also, Ma Bufang of the Hui Muslim Ma clique which had recently declared allegiance to the Republic of China, was assigned the invasion of Xinjiang in order to oust pro-Soviet Xinjiang dictator Sheng Shicai from the province. In April 1928, Muslim General Bai Chongxi under Wu’s command was able to defeat warlord Zhang Zuolin of the Fengtian clique and send him in retreat to Manchuria. However the flooding of the Yangtze River and the arriving winter halted major military activities after. Around the same time, Chen gathered the First Republic Congress by congregating the leaders of China’s various socio-political organizations and parties to develop the new nation’s Constitution. However the meeting eventually fell into chaos due harsh disagreement between parties, particularly those that arose from the New Culture Movement in 1919 and disagreed with the conservative nationalists of the Kuomintang. After disbanding the First Republic Congress, Chen decided to take a more controlling approach; for Congress membership, Chen only permitted socio-political figures that agreed to non-violent and reasonable cooperation with Chen and other members. A Second Republic Congress was thus held and a constitution was developed. It established the executive branch in the form of the Executive Council directed by Premier Hu Hanmin, the legislative branch in the form of a unicameral 214-member Republic Congress, and the judicial branch in the form of a township-to-federal court system headed by a Supreme Court with seven supreme justices. Chen promised democratization of the government’s political structure by the time China was unified under the Republic. Concurrently on 12 June 1928, Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Fengtian warlord clique and governor of Manchuria, was assassinated by Imperial Japanese government agents in a controlled train explosion; the Japanese had long suspected Zhang of submitting to the Republic of China government after Chen took power and brought in much reform. With Zhang Zuolin dead, his son Zhang Xueliang took power. Because Zhang Xueliang was young and less experienced in leadership, the Japanese hoped that he would be more cooperative and easier to manipulate. To the surprise of the Japanese, Zhang declared the Fengtian clique’s allegiance to the Republic of China in December. Several Fengtian warlords refused to go along with Zhang’s decision and remained hostile to Chen’s government, but quickly surrendered as hundreds of Republic of China troops marched into the land to secure the Manchurian border for the Republic and to raise Republic flags as the winter season drew toward its end. Chen waited until the 10th of February, which was also the day of the 1929 Chinese New Year, to declare China’s unification. The day is known as Reunification Day and was also the day the Republic of China was renamed the United Republic of China. Subsequent to the unification, the National Revolutionary Army finally chased the Chinese communists out of the Sichuan Basin following the major Battle of Chengdu that had ended the Sichuan Basin campaign. It was after this campaign that Comintern gave Zhou Enlai’s military command to Mao Zedong. Mao and the communist forces retreated into the Hengduan Mountains of Western Sichuan, where they began a guerrilla campaign that successfully forced the NRA into a stalemate. Turmoil in Tibet Following the dissolution of the Qing dynasty, Tibet immediately declared its independence in 1912 and assumed diplomatic relations with the British Empire. In exchange for the shipment of Tibetan copper and gold, the British armed and trained the Tibetan Army. According to Chinese historians, Tibet fell under the theocratic dictatorial jurisdiction of the 13th Dalai Lama. The newly independent nation functioned under a feudal system, and the land was divided amongst feudal barons recognized by the Dalai Lama where hundreds of Tibetan serfs would work in exchange for vital shelter and rations by baron landowners. During the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, the British withdrew from the southern end of the trans-Himalayan trade route known as the McMahon Passage, and the route fell under the jurisdiction of the Tibetan government administration in Lhasa allowing the Dalai Lama could tax imports without British objection. Also, Tibetan merchants found that they could sell copper at higher prices in Northern Indian markets during the war. Lhasa became a rich city and attracted many across the Buddhist world. However, the primitivity in the nation’s governing ability made the spread of wealth from Lhasa to the rest of Tibet gradual. The 9th Panchen Lama ruled over Shigatse, a Tibetan city that did not benefit economically as well as Lhasa for geoeconomic reasons. One of the main problems with this imbalance was the issue of Shigatse serfs moving east to Lhasa to work for richer barons. In 1926, after being convinced by Shigatse barons, the governor regent of Shigatse, Jhahan Paljan, assassinated the 9th Panchen Lama minutes before his son was born. Paljan and the barons declared Paljan’s son to be the 10th Panchen Lama, Jha kyi Nyima, and declared war on Lhasa, citing that the Dalai Lama was being manipulated by foreigners. Through his son, Paljan instigated rebellion among Lhasan serfs. With no other party to turn to for help, the Dalai Lama asked the Republic of China for military aid. Wang Jingwei sent Sichuan warlord Liu Wenhui to end the turmoil in Tibet. Liu’s arrival quickly ceased the revolt and restored the Dalai Lama’s rule, however Wang used the situation to extend the Republic’s sphere of influence into Tibet. Under Liu’s rule, the Dalai Lama became a figurehead and the feudal system was abolished. Tibetan serfs were made equal to their masters and were allowed to make land and mining claims and start small businesses. Liu ruled very much independently in Tibet while Wang fought a civil war against Chen Jiongming in 1927. After Chen’s victory seemed eminent, Liu made Tibet a part of his federal republic; his actions were met with hostility from Tibet’s upper class. As Chen assumed power and his Chinese unification process went underway, a Tibetan revolt against Liu Wenhui’s rule broke out in Lhasa. As the uprising took place, Liu realized he made a grave mistake by not demilitarizing the native Tibet army. On 5 March 1929, Tibetan forces from Shigatse clashed with Liu mostly Han Chinese warlord army in the outskirts of Lhasa in what came to be known as the Battle of Lhasa, which ended with a Tibetan victory and Liu’s retreat to Nyingchi. The 13th Dalai Lama immediately resumed power in Tibet. Because of the lack of a telegraph, Liu sent horsebound messengers east to Sichuan province, where they arrived at the nearest NRA outpost in Garzê Town several weeks later. Despite Chiang’s will to continue fighting the communists, Chen Jiongming ordered several divisions of the NRA to accompany Liu to Tibet and reclaim control of the land for the URC. By August 1929, Chiang Kai-shek seized control of Lhasa and Shigatse while Muslim general Ma Fuxiang seized Ngari from Xinjiang, trapping the fleeing Tibetan Army and forcing them to surrender. Seeing that the Tibetans were not fit to rule, Chen made Ma Fuxiang, a Muslim, the governor of Tibet, which angered the majority Buddhist population in Tibet, yet instilled Tibet’s order. Additionally, the absence of Chiang and a large portion of the NRA from the communist front was a critical mistake as it had given the communists a period of expansion and rest. During Chiang’s absence, Mao successfully formed three Red Army groups armed with Russian weapons, each army capable of fighting almost decisive battles with the NRA. Chen’s Federalism in Jeopardy 1930 became a troubling year for Chen’s federalist policies and was a time for great revision. In the winter of 1929-30, the mostly Hui Muslim population in Gansu District starved and continued to live in poverty as Gansu ex-warlord governor Feng Yuxiang seized all supply shipments arriving from transcontinental supply routes in order to construct his provincial capital at Lanzhou. While Chen was on a diplomatic mission throughout various foreign dominions in Asia, Feng used hunger as a form a payment in order to force civilians to perform harsh labor. Feng also kept his own militia of troops that served him during the Warlord era. When spring arrived, the Gansu population of Muslims rallied behind Ma Tingxiang and rebelled against Feng, resulting in incidents of brutal shooting massacres around the Lanzhou area. While Gansu may have been the worst, this was not the only case of corrupt governance. In the Central Plains region, ex-warlord governors took control of private-owned cropland and instituted harsh production quotas and martial law with their own private militias from the Warlord era. In Yunnan District, people starved because the state seized land for growing staples and planted opium in them instead. Many civilians protested that their treatment by the governors was no different than what they experienced under the harsh rule of warlords. It was in this time that thousands of civilians fled west to join the Communists, who were rumored to be much more providing towards peasants. Because Ma Tingxiang thought the federal government was responsible for the treatment, he refused to negotiate with the United Republic Congress. Meanwhile, Feng lied about his actions and explained that Ma had been comitting acts of banditry and was growing unsanctioned amounts of opium. This led the federal government to support Feng. Before the revolt was crushed, Chen Jiongming returned to Nanjing where he learned about the incident. Chen was surprised to learn that Ma was eager to negotiate with the President of the United Republic of China. Chen had the situation assessed and then put Feng and Ma on trial. Ma was relieved of all charges while Feng was declared guilty and charged with treason, which was a surprise to the government and its civilians. With so many issues to handle, Chen recalled various government officials to trial in Nanjing in July, which would eventually become known as the Nanjing Trials. Information collected from these trials led to a series of drastic reforms in the structure of the URC’s governance. Chen began by stripping most ex-warlords primarily in northern China, of government power, and replaced them with temporary political elites he trusted that were to later be opened for popular election by the citizen population in each District. Chen also reduced the power of District government and gave more rights to the people and increased the checking power of the central government. Chen and the United Republic Congress passed the Demilitarization Act, which denied district governments control over any military personnel without federal permission, and also demilitarized district law enforcement. Chen elected 26 government agents to lead a new federal agency known as the Control Agency, responsible for investigating corruption within all aspects of URC government; the Control Agency would directly answer to the President and only the President as a priority. While Chen’s actions were met with positive feedback from the general population, he faced a hostile reaction by ex-Zhili warlord governors of Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong, all of whom were stripped of their governor titles which they saw as a breaking of Chen’s promise to the Zhili clique; the ex-governors formed a military coalition generally comprising of former Zhili clique soldiers under their command during the warlord era, and called themselves the Four Lions of the Orient. The United Republic of China called it a “revival of the Zhili clique" and the war with them became known as the Central Plains War, lasting from May 1930 to November. In July, Hebei surrendered after the Battle of Beiping (Beijing’s previous name) when Wu Peifu's forces entered the battle, and the Four Lions became the Three Lions. At the height of the war in October, the Three Lions coalition new they had lost the Northern Front to Wu's forces, and so concentrated a blitzkrieg-style invasion on the capital of Nanjing to the South. However, despite the effort the invasion failed the coalition suffered an expense of a large amount of their forces. Within a month Ma Bufang invaded Shandong and the rebellion ended with the republic restored. It was during this war that the nation’s military forces were united under the jurisdiction of the central government, together forming the United Republic of China Armed Forces. This unity would deter any more armed rebellions from ocurring around the nation. Attention was shifted back towards the communists, Chen Jiongming worked on the development of a national court system. In his earlier international travels, Chen established diplomatic relationships with various countries, particularly European powers. Chen loaned money from these powers so that he could fund the industrialization process of his nation, as well as other necessary actions without placing a tax burden on China’s large population. It was during the early 1930s that China became a major staple crop exporter due to its great abundance in food; many Chinese food shipments were sold and shipped cheaply; they were often exported to European colonies worldwide where there were food shortages, especially due to the concurrent Great Depression. In exchange for foreign supplies, China provided a large immigrant work force for nations and colonies that lacked manpower. As an emerging economy, China’s small businesses benefitted greatly. The Yunnan District became a major global opium producer; opium was sent to Guangxi and Guangdong to be packaged and exported. China’s low-priced opium would eventually be the primary ingredient of the morphine produced for medical purposes at the time, and in the field of war in the future. Concurrently, after the Mukden Incident took place on 18 September 1931, the Imperial Japanese Army launched an invasion of Manchuria and reinstalled former Fengtian warlords over the Manchu puppet government. The United Republic Congress debated on whether to continue fighting the communists or go to war with Japan, and settled with the anti-communist campaign as a priority; Chen knew that fighting the Japanese would be much tougher that fighting the communists, and decided to address the issue with China’s international allies after defeating the communists. Communist expansion in China While seaside China prospered from new wealth, a deadly expansion of communism grew in Northwest China. The Soviet-supplied communist forces had expanded into Shaanxi by 1934, and the URC’s armed forces were unable to suppress it. It was particularly unclear who would choose to become a communist among China’s huge peasant population. The communists confiscated property and weapons from local landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses. Premier Hu Hanmin urged Chen to purge any signs of communist influence in the peasant community, however Chen refused as he believed Hu Hanmin’s proposal would only worsen the situation. The Red Army’s guerilla fighting tactics costed the URC many lives and they had excellent intel which they recieved from local populations. The mountains and wilderness that belonged to the communists prevented the URC’s forces from establishing a good base of operations. Seeing that he could no longer tolerate a stalemate in the war, Chen began talks with Nazi German military ambassador Hans von Seeckt who arrived in Shanghai on May 1933 to commence a German military mission. After the URC had expressed interests in a French military mission against the communists, Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler had intervened, hoping to expand Germany’s foreign relations with China and also help prevent communism from spreading in China. In 1934, Chen reached an agreement with Nazi Germany under the supervision of von Seeckt, and called off Chiang's campaign, ordering his return to Nanjing with the NRA. Chen commissioned 80 German-trained military divisions (about 1,000-2,000 men each) for the purpose of fighting the communist insurgency. Before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, 64 of the 80 divisions would be completed. Among the 64 divisions are four Panzer I divisions. It was also during this time that China modernized its rather small air force. Second Sino-Japanese War In 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident escalated into a full-scale battle that prompted a Japanese declaration of war and the invasion of China. The United Republic of China Armed Forces under Military Chief of Staff Chiang Kai-shek decided to concentrate much of his forces in the Battle of Shanghai, a bloody campaign that lasted for four months. Chiang was definitely able to prove that the Japanese could not take over China as easily as they predicted, but as Japanese forces overwhelmed and forced a retreat of Wu Peifu’s forces in Beijing, Chiang was ordered to retreat to Nanjing. At the same time, Chen Jiongming moved to capital of China to Chongqing. While the Battle of Nanjing occurs, Chen Jiongming died of typhus while residing in Chongqing. He was immediately replaced by Premier Hu Hanmin who resumed Chen’s responsibilities as the Acting President. Hu ordered the mass evacuation of the Chinese population out of the coastal plain and river plains and to the West for refuge. During the war, the URC lost complete control over the Japanese dominated North, however their counteroffensives in the South were often successful and turned the war into a stalemate. Many Northern refugees fled to Xinjiang, where the communists had relocated. There they were promised food and the communists used the convenience to expand their communist ideology throughout the Chinese refugee population. In the 1940s, the Chinese defeated the Japanese forces in Yunnan, allowing them to connect with British forces in Burma. Using the northernmost Trans-Himalayan passage, the Americans and the British supplied the Chinese with important aircraft including bombers. The Japanese mistakenly believed that China was lacking an air force, however joint fliers of American and Chinese pilots out of Tibet wreacked havoc on Japanese military installations in the Chinese Southern river valleys. This prompted the Japanese to conduct operation Ichi-Go in 1944. In response, in 1945 concurrent to Germany’s surrender, the United States Air Force launched an air assault from the Southeast in order to prevent Japanese planes from interrupting Chiang Kai-shek’s march to Guangxi. As the atomic bombs were being dropped, Chinese forces entered Guangdong province, seizing the Canton area including former colonies Hong Kong and Macau which they annexed as part of the URC. Chinese Civil War resumes The seizure of Manchuria by the Soviets prompted the communists to surge into Northern China including Beijing. At a speech in Tiananmen Square, Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China and called for war on the United Republic of China. The Communist Party had promised peasants control over Chinese land, allowing them to mobilize immensely large numbers of volunteer militiamen. In February 1946 at the end of the winter, the Red Army engaged URC Arny (URCA) forces in Henan and were able to conquer Henan with the URCA on the run. As a result, President Hu Hanmin called for the regrouping of URC forces in Chengdu and other cities along the Yangtze River. After his astonishment about the effects of Communist propaganda on peasant war refugees in the North, Hu Hanmin launched a propaganda campaign of his own in 1946, warning peasants aligned with the communists and his own refugee population that the Communist Party would “litter the great countryside with prison work camps where the Chinese people would be forced to work and be treated like Russian dogs and mules.” The United Republic of China Armed Forces had the excellent advantage of planes, where they would drop leaflets urging refugees to escape across the Yangtze River to the United Republic of China’s domain to avoid being bombed. Hu had refugees convinced that there was more and richer farmland available in the South for planting staples. At the same time, Mao Zedong would counter Hu's accusations and the indirect debates would go back and forth as the UCRA and Red Army clashed between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. In general, Mao was usually more convincing and refugees who were members of the Chinese proletariat joined the communists in the masses. While the Red Army had the advantage of manpower and could overrun the UCRA, the large amount of casualties on their sides would deeply lower morale; Chiang Kai-shek had called the communists "barbaric hordes incapable of fighting competitively and with strategy." Despite URC advantages, the communists had devastated the URC's offensive campaign by using their manpower to block off supply routes, go on missions to destroy railroads, and commit quick atrocities on Southerners; the communists convinced the peasants that Southerners they had killed were their upper-class oppressors. Meanwhile, earlier on from 1946 to 1947 the URC had struggled to feed a substantially larger and enormous refugee population that was terribly displaced. The United States and other Allied had declared their inability to lend major support to the Chinese people, much to the United Republic Congress' dismay. In August 1948, the Red Army had gradually pushed down to the banks of the Yangtze River and the edge of the Tibetan plateau. Just as it seemed that the invasion of the Yangtze downstream would come inevitable and swift, Hui Muslim Ma Tingxiang who was allegiant to the URC incited a rebellion in Qinghai that came to be known as the Blue Jihad, a violent reaction by Northern Muslim refugees against the communists who had disrespected their religion and places of worship; at the same time the Blue Jihad was a collaborationist plan to help Hui Muslims escape to the URC. Weeks into the rebellion, the URC’s newly formed Qinghai Expeditionary forces travelled across the Qin mountains to aid the Hui Muslims in the Battle of Xining; this deliberately delayed Mao's plan to invade the Sichuan Basin. In January 1949, the United States and the United Republic of China agreed on an alliance. The United States Navy observed the relocation of hundreds of thousands of URC refugees to League of Nations refugee camps in Formosa/Taiwan and supplied the URC military with food. The United States did not, however, sanction the yield of weapons and ammunition to the URC military or have the US Army take military action against the communists in fear of starting a war with the Soviet Union; President Truman wanted the Soviet Union to see US involvement as purely a pursuit of peace and humanitarian aid. In July 1949, the Red Army successfully invaded and took over the Sichuan Basin. The fact that the US military would not take action soured Hu's view of the United States; Hu blamed the defeat in Sichuan Basin on lack of foreign military intervention. Hu, member of the KMT political party, was deeply anti-separatist while the United Republic Congress overall had become more willing to tolerate the existence of the People's Republic of China and pursue peace. During the 1950's election in February 1950, KMT Acting President Hu Hanmin was replaced by Chiang Ching-kuo, General Chiang Kai-shek's son and politician who was a member of the Democratic Progessive Party that promoted peaceful future relations with the People's Republic of China; his agenda to end the war attracted positive attention by the mass majority of the URC population and Chiang won by a landslide. Shortly after he was inaugurated President, Chiang Ching-kuo began talks with the League of Nations Council to bring an end to the war. At the same time, the United Republic Congress voted to place a four-year limit for one presidential term, with four terms that one individual can run in total.